Civil War Abolitionist Missionary Magazine, the American Missionary, January 1862

Missionary

Ephemera and pamphlets

Rare Abolitionist Civil War American Missionary magazine from January 1862. New York: American Missionary Association, January 1862. Vol. VI, No. 1. Original printed self-wrappers measuring 8.5" x 5.75" and numbering 24 pages. Issue of the abolitionist American Missionary magazine published by the American Missionary Association (AMA), a Protestant reform organization founded in 1846 and committed to the advancement of Black education and civil rights through Christian evangelism and anti-slavery activism. Issued during a watershed moment in the Civil War—just months before Lincoln’s preliminary Emancipation Proclamation—the magazine served as a primary vehicle for disseminating anti-slavery theology and firsthand reports from AMA missionaries and allies in the field.

The contents of this issue reflect the American Missionary Association’s dual emphasis on foreign and domestic missions, with special urgency placed on the cause of abolition. Notably, the article “The Development of the Nature of Slavery” presents a theological broadside against slavery by Rev. Asa D. Smith of New York. Reprinted from The New York Evangelist, Smith’s address offers a potent critique of slavery’s moral perversion: “We have occasion for thanksgiving in the developments which are being made of the nature of slavery. Not that we thank God for that evil; but that since it is upon us, it is well that we should see it for what it is, in its most malignant and pestiferous character.” The piece characterizes slavery not simply as a social ill, but a deeply entrenched spiritual blight: “It annihilates the sweet sympathies of human brotherhood. It turns a man all into a thing… It ignores his high relations to God… it disjoins, as it were, his soul from his Maker.” The article stresses that true Christian doctrine is incompatible with any defense of the institution, asserting that slavery “can be no less than a demon of the waste… the impostor now, in grinning mockery shows.” The commentary offers a remarkable window into Civil War-era abolitionist theology, voicing the AMA’s conviction that the war represented a divine reckoning with America’s original sin.

Elsewhere in the issue, the piece “Persecution in Virginia” recounts the ordeal of Samuel Lambert, a United Brethren in Christ member who escaped from forced service in the Confederate army and offered testimony about pro-Union religious resistance in the Shenandoah Valley. According to the article, Lambert and five others had since July 17th been praying daily “for the overthrow of treason and the triumph of the Federal cause.” For months, “not a ray of hope illumined the horizon,” as all news they could obtain pointed only to “the disasters and the villainy of the Union cause.” Yet “hoping against hope, they have not ceased to pray. For two or three weeks past, the light has been breaking in a little.” This report conveys the lived experience of wartime religious dissenters in the South and offers evidence of networks of abolitionist sentiment even within Confederate territory. Other items document developments in West Africa, Jamaica, and missionary stations in the Sandwich Islands, situating the abolitionist cause within a larger evangelical framework of global reform. Light general toning, faint foxing to wrappers, small dark stain to front cover. Spine partially split but holding; internally complete and clean, with legible text throughout. Very good condition overall. A powerful Civil War-era number of The American Missionary, articulating a militant theological argument against slavery and offering rare primary-source documentation of anti-slavery resistance and Christian advocacy in Confederate Virginia. An especially significant artifact from one of the most influential abolitionist publications of the 19th century.

Item #21766

Price: $285.00